


red and gold

by PenelopeJadewing



Series: Hambleton's Ice Creamery [2]
Category: Hambleton's Ice Creamery, Original Work
Genre: Christmas, Elves, Gen, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Slice of Life, Urban Fantasy, Werewolves, just cute kids christmas shopping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:22:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21922120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PenelopeJadewing/pseuds/PenelopeJadewing
Summary: Snow days are supposed to be fun! They're surprise holidays; they're for getting extra sleep, making hot chocolate, and wasting hours away in front of the TV setting new high scores on your favorite video game. Too bad Marcy doesn't get to do any of that.
Relationships: Hye Montegomery & Sundance Merryweather, Marceline Ross & Sibyl Ross
Series: Hambleton's Ice Creamery [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1479212
Kudos: 3





	red and gold

Snow days tended to arrive like in-store coupons—somewhat expected around the holiday season, but still no less serendipitous. Waking up to the world as a vision in white, feeling the chill radiate from the window glass, the satisfying experience of sliding around the house in fuzzy socks especially for the occasion. The year’s first official cup of hot cocoa enjoyed from the toasty cocoon of a wool blanket pulled from the depths of the linen closet. And of course, nothing could compare to the joys of waking up to _no school_. Like a Christmas present from Mother Nature.

So the moment Marcy parted his curtains and saw a hefty blanket of snow laid to rest over the entire neighborhood, his heart leapt in his chest and he all but dove for his clock to slap on the radio. As fate would have it, the radio host was just pausing the morning rock n’ roll to rattle off the school closure announcements by district, in alphabetical order. As the West Lorian district was quite far down the list , waiting was pure agony, but when those blessed syllables crackled out of the radio speakers, the purest elation warmed his veins and spread through him from head to toe. No school meant no riding in the cold or crowding in the bus, no long hours listening to Mr. Halloway drone on about some ancient queen’s parade of love children or Ms. Turner try to make complex formulas sound happy. No listening to Rush and Zazzy bicker about Monstro City cards over lunch.

No, he knew exactly what he was going to do today. He didn’t even have to think about it. He was staying in his pajamas, making himself some hot cocoa and curling up in front of his G-Sphere.

Maybe he’d see if that new game, Outlaw’s Honor, would be on sale for the holidays and he could use some of his well-earned cash to snatch it up. Maybe he’d play it all day. His parents probably wouldn’t let him… but he could hope.

He tugged on his wool socks and skidded through the house, as the situation demanded (his recent birthday be darned), charting course to the kitchen and the tin of cocoa mix, but the moment he swung into the counter space, an innocuous little piece of paper set out next to a pair of Tizzies and a magazine clipping caught his attention and brought him to a halt.

The note, written in his mother’s familiar scrawl, read:

_Good morning, kiddos! SNOW DAY!! Schools are closed!_   
_I’m at work today, and so is Dad. Marcy, I need you to run to the mall and pick up a few things for me!_   
_\- chocolate chips_   
_\- peppermints_   
_\- molasses_   
_\- that present for Dad ;)_

_We’re making cookies for Father Zachary (and ourselves of course) this weekend, so we need these things ASAP!_   
_Love, Mom_

Someone may as well have taken a needle to a balloon with ‘Marcy’s hopes and dreams’ written on the side in magic marker. All of the enthusiasm whooshed out of him almost as fast as he could think ‘well then’. Of course Mom would be at work. Of course she would have something for him to do today. No hot cocoa, no G-Sphere or Rogue Sentinel or Fate: Forgotten. No shuffling around in his socks all day. 

That was annoying.

It took him a whole ten minutes to get dressed. He refused to feel too guilty about it; after all, one could only move so quickly when all the wind was gone from your sails. He bundled up, slipped his WoodNation boots on over his wool socks and tucked himself into his overstuffed down coat, suitable especially for this kind of weather. It was like putting on a pillow and it was fun to wander around feeling like a marshmallow. Which could be the only fun he’d have today. But perhaps that was pessimistic of him.

_Maybe I shouldn’t be irritated about this… Mom is working. Dad is working. It’s not like they can do this today._

But did it have to be done today, of all days? On a precious snow day?

Apparently.

He was just tugging his red plaid snow cap over his head when his door cracked inward and a small head peaked in.

Marcy leveled his younger sister with a dry stare. “Knock, please. What if I was changing?”

Sibyl snorted. “Don’t you lock your door?”

No, he actually didn’t. He tended to forget that crucial little detail, but kept assuming people would knock if the door was closed. Perhaps he should stop doing that, and maybe people would stop helping themselves to his space without considering the state he might be in on the other side.

Instead of giving her a proper answer, he just fished his puffy red winter mittens out of his special basket, which he kept just for things like gloves and hats and the one scarf he had. “Did you need something?”

“You’re going to the mall, right?”

Ah, she must have read the note too. He hummed with an absent nod.

“Can I come?”

A frown pinched his eyebrows together and he paused with one glove halfway on his hand. He glanced her way, looked her over briefly—she looked like she was still in her pajamas, from the glimpse of stylized otter faces on blue fleece that he could spot inching through his doorway. “…Are you ready to go?”

She huffed. “Well, I’m not gonna get all ready to go just for you to say no. That’s why I’m asking first.”

He considered this for a moment. On one hand, he really didn’t look forward to the idea of keeping track of his twelve-year-old sister at the mall, which was sure to be busy now that it was December, while also hunting around for the things on Mom’s list. On the other hand, his bubble had already been burst. Might as well add salt to the wound. 

Maybe she could help look, and that could make things go faster. And the faster they found the items on the list, the faster he could get back and spend the rest of the day holed up in his room, as previously planned. Yes, that sounded like a decent idea…

He nodded once. “Kay. Get ready, then.”

Her whole face brightened and she vanished from sight, the patter of her bare feet thudding down the hall. He could hear her shut the door to her room, and the subtle footsteps that still carried over through the doors that led to their connecting bathroom. 

It was only after he got his mittens on and tightened the straps that he remembered he would need his fingers, in order to use his phone, in order to call a cab. Granted, they could also walk to the bus stop over on Tweet Street, but the idea of climbing onto a crowded bus full of strangers and riding that through miles of snowy streets—no, that definitely didn’t sound like a fun time. Not on top of everything else. A cab would be much more pleasant by comparison—the only person he’d have to interact with in that scenario was the driver. So he yanked off his gloves again and made the call. He also remembered to snag a few dozen zinnos from his stash under his bed—just in case he happened to… run into any game stores. That would certainly make the trip _almost_ worthwhile.

Sibyl soon returned in a big sky-blue trench coat and navy boots, and in no less than fifteen minutes’ time, the two of them were headed out the door and down the walk, to where the vibrant blue cab waited parked for them on the curb, exhaust puffing out a white mist behind it. After they clambered in, Marcy told the driver where they were headed, and then made sure his sister buckled up for the drive. It would take at least fifteen minutes to reach the mall—maybe more, depending on the traffic this morning. Snow days were a hit or miss when it came to travel; some days, the maintenance crews got on it early and had the major roads cleared by the time most people were out getting their morning coffee before work. Other days… nobody got anywhere, and that meant _nobody_.

As it turned out, the freeways were mostly clear, save for the occasional patch of packed snow sheets here and there. The city was dazzling, all dressed in white, all the snow reflecting the stop lights’ red and green or the headlights and taillights from the streams of vehicles that threw up jets of water at their heels, remnants from the snow melted by the salts scattered earlier that morning. The cab driver had a Christmas station playing on the radio, enveloping them with classic carols set to sleigh bell percussion. Once they passed out of Bushfort and into Honeyvale, more signs of the season appeared—garland and special light fixtures hung on every lamppost, and lights strung along the eaves of every storefront or corner store. 

_Couldn’t see that from your bedroom, could you?_

_N-No but…_ He shook the thought away. He’d had to give up a day lounging in bed with his favorite controller for this. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to be happy about having to leave the house.

“You’re fifteen now, right?” Sibyl said as they passed the Mallmart at Exit 14B.

Given his current train of thought, his brain linked this question to his previous mental pouting, which he didn’t appreciate. He swallowed down thoughts of his plans and how they’d been so thoroughly dashed, just so he could have a marginally clear conscience when he nodded in response. “Yeah… why?” That’s right. He was a fifteen-year-old. It didn’t feel really any different from being fourteen; he was still in his first year of high school. But he couldn’t be caught pouting over a snow day.

“Maybe you’ll get a car soon,” his sister continued, staring out the window at the traffic around them. “That’d be cool. Then we wouldn’t need to take cabs anywhere.”

That was a fair point. But she certainly over-estimated how much money he had saved up. He’d only been working at Hambleton’s for a few months now. What was it… four? Five? Almost five.

Since August. Wait… five was almost six, and six was half a year.

Okay, so maybe it had been a while. But maybe he’d been buying himself new games instead of thinking about saving for a car. _Whoops…_

He had time, right? He couldn’t even get his license until next year. He could save up in that time… assuming he kept the job.

Boy, he really didn’t want to be thinking about all this today. He missed his room.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to take the time and energy to come up with some sort of response—or to wonder why on earth his sister was the one thinking about this sort of thing when she was just twelve—before suddenly she gasped and leaned forward in her seat, pointing out the front window of the cab.

“Marcy, look!”

He followed her line of indication and saw, through the mist spotting the windshield and the _whip-squeak_ of the wipers, the Blue Crown mall looming just down the hill, only an exit away. If the city streets had seemed a holiday spectacle, the mall took the cake. They had a rainbow of lights hung along every entrance, the usual neon at the front set to red and green instead of the usual gold and red. Someone must have magicked it just for the season. And atop the roof, a massive animatronic snowman waved its hands and grinned a jolly grin at every passerby from under the brim of a big inflatable top hat.

Marcy personally found Frosty the Snowman somewhat creepy, but. The smile on Sibyl’s face as she ogled the sight with wonder was pretty cute.

The cab took them down Exit 21 and off the expressway and before he knew it, they stood under the green awning outside the main entrance—the gateway to the bustling, fluorescent world beyond. Marcy held the small grocery list as tightly in his gloved hand as he could manage. At least, based on the things on that list, they only had to make one stop.

At Bounty Foods.

After hundreds of trips to this mall over the coarse of his childhood, he knew its layout pretty well. They would have to navigate past two food courts, the entire cosmetics district, two clothing outlets, at least three toy stores, a PopTop and a GameHub to get there. And both PopTop and GameHub would most likely have the season’s hottest games displayed somewhere where every passing customer could see them. Including Outlaw’s Honor.

But if he stopped to look, it would take longer to get what they really came here for, thus delaying the return to the warmth of home. Did he want to do that? He could practically hear the game calling his name, but his fuzzy socks were currently calling louder, as he shivered against the cold winter wind that swept across the parking lot.

“Are we…” Sibyl leaned into his line of sight, hanging her top half almost sideways just to look him in the eye, “going inside?”

He shook himself out of his own head. What was he standing there like an idiot for? He shoved the list into his pocket for later reference and marched forward through the revolving doors. “Stay close, okay? No wandering off.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

The mall always felt like a different world in and of itself. From bright lights, the generous plant displays, the fountains and seating areas, the constant smell of food, to the moving advertisements cast in windows via screen or glittering magic veils, to the actual rollercoaster that wound itself around the mall center courtyard, towering from the first floor almost reaching to the glass ceiling three stories up, and the sheer amount of _noise_ that permeated the air—Blue Crown was a habitat all on its own. A far cry from the environment Marcy craved this morning.

Maybe the furthest cry. Especially since he’d been completely right about traffic this time of year in every sense. People seemed to be out in droves; the air practically vibrated with the sound of a thousand voices bouncing to and fro off the clean tile floors and long corridors.

Marcy kept his strides lengthy and did his best to keep his head down as he led the way into the labrynth of hallways and junctions. He didn’t need to waste time with the maps; he was certain he knew where he was going. 

“Wait up!” Sibyl, with her much shorter legs, struggled to keep up alongside him, her steps short and harried. “Golly, what’s you’re hurry?”

“I want to get this over with quick,” he answered, trying to avoid eye contact with people walking past them. 

“Why?”

He bit back a sigh. Did she really have to ask? “J-Just… because.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“No, it’s not.”

He was _not_ about to pull a Sunny and Hye with her, so he bit back the instinct to go ‘yeah-huh’ and instead, he looked around, met eyes with a random stranger, and dropped his gaze right back down to his feet again. One step, two step. Yeah, watching his feet was safest. Well… safer. Worse case scenario, he’d just run into something.

“W-Whatever, just… I don’t want this to take long, okay?” He glanced down at her, watched her brown ponytail bob with each of her steps. “I want to enjoy today.”

“Why?”

He snorted. “Why, ‘cause it’s a snow day. Don’t you wanna enjoy it?”

“This is enjoyable.”

“That’s an opinion.” 

After that, she left him alone, but walked slower. And since he didn’t want to lose her, he had no choice but to slow down. Which he just knew, without a doubt, was exactly what she wanted to happen. She’d always been smarter than most gave her credit for. They looked at her and saw a small, plain brunette tween, and completely missed the glimmer of wit in her eyes. 

It seemed to take an inordinate amount of time to find the mall Bounty’s; that was where, when their mother brought them window shopping for Christmas gifts after Harvest Day, she pointed out a bag of gourmet dark coffee grounds that she thought would make a good gift for Dad. They’d perused other options after that, but decided last week that the coffee would be the best gift, along with a new tie and a mug that said ‘Hero’ on it in the silhouette of a police badge. They bought him a mug every year to add to his collection.

Marcy knew that the store was past the clothing outlets, to the right after two toy stores, and next to one of the mall’s two Pizza Shacks. He just knew it! But he’d already passed the last Chevonne and turned right at the Here Be Toyz and he couldn’t see the sign for Bounty’s anywhere. He passed a Maple store, with their tables lined with the latest, sleekest computers and phones; a candy bar, a Bathworks, and a Bullseye, but no sign of the leafy insignia above a wide doorway with a little kiosk of 70% chocolates in the middle. Where on earth was it?

What was worse was, when he turned to check and be sure his sister was still at his heels, he found nothing but empty floor behind him. Instantly, he snapped his head up and scanned the area, spinning around, looking for a flash of sky blue amidst the dozens of people crossing his path every two seconds. There was no sign of her in the immediate vicinity and his pulse sped faster; if he lost his sister just because he was distracted for three seconds looking for one stupid store, his mother was going to kill him. Taking off at a jog, he retraced his steps back to the junction between the Here Be Toyz and the BearBuilder, paying close attention to their storefronts just in case she stopped to ogle the toys. Not a sign of her there either.

So he stood in the middle of the crossroads, looking back and forth down each long, crowded corridor, eyes straining for any glimpse of her coat. With so many bodies clad in so many colors all sifting around, just keeping his eyes on one at a time was hard enough, but suddenly a flash of bright blue caught his eye— _past_ the Here Be Toyz, just outside a Champion Edge sports outlet.

He made a rapid beeline in that direction and, when closer inspection revealed it to indeed be Sibyl, he approached her with a heavy sigh of relief.

“Hey, don’t just wander off,” he muttered, coming alongside her and nudging her shoulder. “You freaked me out.”

“Well, that’s not hard,” she retorted, which made him pout, before she nodded in through the window. “Check those out.”

Following her line of sight begrudgingly, he found just inside the glass a stacked display of snowboards. They looked like… well, snowboards. He’d been snowboarding a couple times, just when the family drove out to Winkie Peaks Resort last year and two years before that. It was fun and all, trying to go as fast as he could without their parents getting on his case, but it definitely wasn’t his favorite thing to do. Certainly not enough to stare longingly at a set of new boards like Sibyl was doing now.

“They’re…” he glanced between her and the display, “…snowboards.”

“Uh huh.”

“…Snowboards.”

“Yeah. I like the red one.”

“Just snowboards.” He sighed again. “Don’t give me a heart attack over snowboards. Come on, we need to hurry.”

She just snorted, a single, sharp puff of air carrying the weight of a thousand eyerolls. “You’d be looking if they were G-Sphere M2’s.”

“I-I…!” He snapped his mouth shut before he could attempt some lame excuse to try and disprove this accusation, even though he knew full well she was one-hundred percent right. The M2’s had only just hit the market, and boy were they sleek, all black with acid green streaks and yellow lights. He’d been talking about them for a week. That didn’t mean she had to be so huffy about it, though. “W-Well maybe, but. They’re not. And we need to find Bounty’s, so let’s go.”

“Find it?” At last, she stepped away from the window and arched an eyebrow at him. “You mean you’re lost?”

“No!” he blurted, starting to turn back toward the toy stores. “I just can’t find it. It’s not like it can move though, so it’s gotta be around here somewhere.”

“Why don’t we find a map instead?” Her voice barely carried over the cacophony of Christmas bustle from behind him.

Marcy shook his head, though afterward, he realized she didn’t exactly have the best vantage point to tell. “No, I know it’s here. I’ll find it.”

“Okay…” she sang. He didn’t appreciate the raw, unadulterated Doubt in her tone.

Ten minutes, several turns he was almost certain were incorrect, and a failed attempt to double back to actually find a mall map later, he was starting to wonder if she’d had good reason to doubt him. They’d somehow managed to circle over into the cosmetics department, where every ad in every window was the massive face of some model or another wearing heavy masks of shimmer and liner and whatever else these stores were selling, none of which was any help to them. They’d seen no hide nor hair of Bounty’s, Pizza Shack, or even the same Here Be Toyz. Every step just wore his soles shorter and his patience thinner. He felt like he was doing nothing but wandering in circles at this point, and his little sister was toddling along at his heels, watching him closely.

Surprisingly, she hadn’t said a word since they left the sports outlet. 

They’d just paused to take a breather at bench under one of the many indoor birch trees. Marcy stretched out his feet, leaned his head back against the bench and took a few deep breaths with his eyes closed. Maybe if he just kept going inward, toward the store center, they’d run into one of the food courts or the courtyard soon. There had to be some mall maps there. Why they didn’t have them at every hallway intersection for poor pedestrians, he had no idea. They really ought to—

Someone grabbed his wrist and he almost shot out of his seat.

His eyes snapped open and found a grinning caramel face looming over him, sharp canine teeth bared.

“Ohhhh my g**,” Marcy breathed, sagging back, sliding down the bench and almost off it. “Hye, you—hnng please…”

Hye cackled madly, wearing his signature white gloves and draped in an oversized belted coat. He let go of Marcy’s wrist so he could double over with glee. “Boo!”

“You need to stop doing that.”

“Why though? It’s so fun.”

How on earth did they manage to keep doing this? Not scaring Marcy, but. Showing up? In his general vicinity; it was like something kept shoving them in his path. _Well, “them”…_ Marcy glanced around behind the werewolf, half expecting to hear the clop of high heels approaching on the tile, forewarning him to the arrival of—

“Hye!” Sunny, sure as the loading screen between game maps, came marching up not in heels for once but in knee-high boots topped in white fur, a giant tin hugged close to his long, puffy white parka. He looked like a snowball. “Stop running off! We’re supposed to be—oh, Marcy. Hi.”

This felt vaguely familiar. Marcy pushed his feet against the floor, sliding himself back into a normal sitting position. Hye, he could be weird around. Sunny, less so. “Hey. W-Weird coincidence, huh?”

Sunny snorted. “With Hye’s nose, I doubt it. He’s been like this all day.”

“I’m not your kid,” Hye said, sticking his tongue out at the elf, wiggling his entire body with an extra dose of sass. “I don’t need babysitting. I wanna see everything!”

“Too much,” Sunny replied, disapproval as obvious as ever in the crease between his pink eyebrows.

Something _thump_ ed hard against Marcy’s ankle, drawing his attention down to his boot, where a smaller navy boot beat its toe into his. Sibyl sat there, staring up at him with wide eyes full of emphasis. He’d almost forgotten she was there. Whoops.

“Oh, uh,” he said, offering her a shrug of apology, to which she just scowled. “This is, um. My little sister. Uh, Sibyl.”

Hye sucked in a dramatic gasp and leapfrogged over in front of her, almost bowling into Sunny in the process. Sunny staggered back—as much as an elf could stagger anyway—swinging the big tin out of harm’s way and barely biting back another sharp remark, pursing his lips and letting a hot breath out through his nose instead. Hye, who didn’t even notice the aura of pure exasperation radiating from his friend, just offered Sibyl the widest, brightest grin—the same one he’d given Marcy on his first day, back in August.

“Hi Sibby!” He planted his hands on his hips, in a vaguely superhero-esque manner. “Can I call you Sibby? Sorry, should’ve asked first. Hey, you have Marcy’s eyes!”

“…Uh-huh,” after a second’s hesitation, she put on a wide but tight-lipped smile of her own. Her gaze seemed to drift around, like she was trying to peer behind Hye instead of at him. “Sibby’s fine and, uh… we are siblings.”

Hye cackled again, throwing his head back as if it was the funniest thing in the world. “I know! I can tell! You smell like the same house. Smells like fake flowers and a vacuum cleaner. Also cookies!”

“Hye, _you_ smell like cookies.” With a roll of his dark eyes, Sunny stepped around the werewolf to offer Sibyl his best professional smile, the picture-perfect one. “Hi, Sibyl. It’s good to meet you; we’ve heard a lot about you.”

A lot? Marcy wouldn’t say that. He mentioned her sometimes, like when he told them about her starting track at her own school or when he complained about her beating his high score in Rogue Sentinel two weeks ago (which he had since won back). That wasn’t really a lot—

Sibyl practically sprung up from her seat and latched tightly onto Marcy’s wrist, pulling his arm out and giving it a very insistent tug. “Just a second,” she murmured, and Marcy assumed she was talking to the other two, since she was currently in the process of trying to drag him right off the bench. 

Trying not to look too confused, and only delaying a few extra seconds just to be obnoxious, he finally hauled himself to his feet, after which she proceeded to haul him several feet further, until they were practically across the hall from Hye and Sunny. Marcy barely had the time to open his mouth with the question of “why” on his lips, before she yanked him down to her level with the vice grip she had on his wrist and hissed in his face.

“Why didn’t you tell us you worked with a _famous person_??”

Those words bounced around inside his head slowly, and he spent two whole seconds just staring at her blankly, trying to ponder through what she meant. Famous… person? What famous person did he work…

He glanced across the corridor, around the numerous passersby crossing in his way, glimpsed the pink hair signaling Sunny and Hye’s location like a waypoint. He frowned. “Sunny?”

Her ‘pfff’ rustled the bangs on her forehead. “Yes! Sundance Merryweather, _he’s_ your co-worker?? He works at an _ice cream shop_??”

Marcy busied himself trying to pry away her hold on his wrist; it kept getting tighter as she talked. “Yeah, what’s the big deal?”

“What’s—!” She actually sputtered, a rare occurrence, and refused to give up her shackle on him. “He’s _Sundance Merryweather_!”

“I know his name, Sibyl. He’s not _that_ famous.” Sure, he’d been on a couple magazine covers; Marcy had known this for months, after he searched for Sunny’s name and that one magazine Mom got every month. But the same could be said for a lot of other people. That wasn’t _famous_.

Just like that, the frustration reddening her cheeks fleeted away into flat resignation. She abruptly released his wrist only to grab a fist full of his coat collar and shove him around, to face the nearest window display to their left—the moving ad cast in magic outside the nearby LeClair cosmetics shop. In bright vibrant color and startling detail, a giant face stared with heavy lids out over the heads of the mall crowds, scrawling text advertising some sort of holiday color palette in red and gold, which was very boldly displayed on those heavy lids, over a dramatic black wing and thick pink eyelashes.

Ad-Sunny tilted his face up, so light glimmered off the gold dust on his eyes and cheeks, and then winked in slow motion with the smallest crooked smile before blowing across his palm, sending a flurry of animated snowflakes to blot the screen out in white so that the ad text could reassert itself.

Marcy blinked at the words—Holiday Royale; did Mom own that one?—until they finally sunk in. Holiday Royale by LeClair, the brand of every drop of makeup Mom owned. The brand he always saw in TV ads, the fancy font so subconsciously familiar to him, he couldn’t forget it even if he wanted to. LeClair, the brand he heard in snippets from every girl clique in school.

_Wait, just how famous is Sunny??_

“See,” Sibyl smirked.

“…Ah,” was all Marcy had to say. What else could he say? He needed a second to process this. He didn’t know a lot about… well, makeup. He had no reason to. But even he knew enough to assume that being a face for this company meant _something_ … right?

How was he supposed to know? He didn’t know how models worked.

Still. _Model._ Like, being featured on a cover or two was one thing; if you did something big enough or had the right amount of money, he assumed that wasn’t hard to do. All those months ago, Marcy hadn’t looked into why Sunny was on those covers. He hadn’t seen the need; they were just beauty magazines. Of course elves would be featured in them, especially if they had money.

With all the fancy stuff Sunny wore all the time, Marcy had just figured it had something to do with that. Money and looks. 

Not actual fame.

“Why didn’t you say something??” Sibyl repeated, reminding him that there was an unanswered question hanging between them. 

Marcy shook himself back into the present and dropped his stare of befuddlement back down to her. “Uhh… w-wh—I don’t know, I thought you knew! Haven’t you been there before?”

She scoffed. “Yeah, _once_. Last year. ‘Member?”

No, he didn’t.

It must have shown on his face, because she just sighed. “My birthday. You stayed home because it was a girls’ party. We went to a new ice cream shop near the expressway.”

That sounded vaguely familiar. But that didn’t explain— “Okay so yeah, you have been there. Why didn’t _you_ recognize Sunny then?”

“He wasn’t there!” she snapped. “If he was, why would I be asking why you didn’t tell me about him??”

That… was a good point.

“I-I…” Slightly intimidated by the weight of her scowl, he glanced across the corridor again, looking for his friends. As if they could help him from where they were. Which seemed to have moved anyway; he couldn’t spot Sunny’s hair anymore.

Arms wrapped around Marcy’s waist and lifted him straight up off his feet, and spun him in a full circle. He managed to bite his tongue to keep from yelping out loud. He didn’t have to. He could guess who it was this time.

“Christmas hug!” Hye trumpeted, ignoring the stares of all the passing people who observed the odd moment. The werewolf then deposited Marcy back on his feet, almost sending him stumbling into his sister, hooked his arm and thrust a small satin bag tied with a neat little bow in his face. “And Christmas cookies!”

“Whoa,” Marcy murmured over the thud of his heart, staring cross-eyed at the bag for a second before leaning away, if only to get a better look. Cookies? Yes, nestled behind the holiday-green mesh were a trio of sugar cookies shaped like pine trees, with red and white sprinkles acting as decorations on the surface of a vibrant green glaze.

The bag made a hasty retreat when Sunny dragged Hye away by the shoulder. Instead of the typical parent-grade exasperation Marcy expected to find on his face (which was much less painted than in that ad, now that he looked closer), the elf almost looked concerned, his brows drawn together and upward at the corners. “Hye, are you _sure_ you’re good?”

Hye whirled and clasped Sunny’s face between his hands. “Yeah! Why?”

Very carefully, Sunny wedged his own hand between Hye’s and pried the contact away, looking somehow both resigned and skeptical at the same time. His eyes darted between Hye’s for a fleeting moment before he answered. “Okay, okay, wh-whatever, just…” He shifted his weight around, pried open the big tin he carried, and fished out two more satin bags stuffed with cookies. Why exactly were they carrying around so many? “Here. Give them theirs, and then take these. Run back to that penny fountain and give them to two people there.”

Another dramatic gasp even greater than the last dragged down Hye’s throat and he snatched the bags so fast, Marcy couldn’t help but worry for those cookies. “The penny fountain! Aye aye, skipper!” Hye spun to face Marcy and Sibyl, making Marcy jump a little, and once again frog-hopped his way over to the smaller of the two siblings. Bending down, Hye deposited one little bag of Christmas cheer into the palm Sibyl put out, and no sooner had it touched the surface of her mitten then Hye was off again, galloping down the corridor and waving backwards at them.

“I’ll be back!” he shouted before throwing himself into a full sprint. He vanished around the next corner, making at least two people stagger to the side to avoid being trampled.

Maybe Sunny had asked a good question. Marcy stared after the lingering breeze left by Hye’s departure, before carefully turning back. “Uh… did he have coffee this morning?”

Sunny managed to force out a small laugh at that. “No, not this time. Uh… the full moon was yesterday. Didn’t you notice?”

Ah. No, no he had not. That explained a bit. If Hye was this way the day after a full moon, the day of must’ve been a trip.

“Excuse me, Mr. Merryweather,” Sibyl spoke up in her best ‘cute little girl’ voice. She usually only used that one for teachers. “We’re trying to find Bounty Foods, but we got lost. Do you know where it is?”

_Oh, that was a good idea._

Actual surprise wiped away all traces of concern on Sunny’s face, and the smile that twisted his lips was a sneaking sort of genuine that only showed his teeth for a blink before he pressed his mouth shut again to stifle a chuckle. Sunny shot a pointed glance in Marcy’s direction, which Marcy wasn’t sure how to interpret, and then nodded. “Yeah, we were just there. You got pretty far off track, though. It’s several blocks over.”

Sibyl clasped her hands in front of her, like she was about to recite something. “Could you show us? My brother’s not always very good with directions.”

Marcy threw her a quick glare, which she promptly ignored.

Did she have to make him sound so incompetent?

The smile threatened to turn up Sunny’s lips again, but he managed to keep it under wraps. “Sure.”

He’d just turned to presumably lead the way off toward wherever he knew Bounty’s to be, but the flashing ad on the window caught his attention for a brief moment, making him hesitate. When the display version of his face appeared from the flurries and sparkles and winked, Sundance full-on cringed.

“Oh…” was all he said, before massaging his temple, almost like he was trying to hide behind his hand.

Marcy tried not to smirk. He gestured to the screen, as casually as he could. “That’s… that’s you.”

“Mm-hm.” Sunny shook his head, closed his eyes, like he could block the ad and the subsequent conversation out. “Come on, let’s go.”

He started walking, so Marcy and Sibyl had no choice but to follow. Marcy glanced back once more, just in time to see ad-Sunny disappear in the cheesy flurry of snowflakes, and tried his best not to chuckle. “A-Are we not gonna talk about that?”

“Doooo we have to?” Sunny didn’t even glance back.

He supposed not. It wasn’t as if Marcy had even knew what he planned to say about it. Maybe Sunny was the same way. Maybe it was best left as just ‘a thing that exists’, nothing more needed.

“Wait, what about Hye?” The thought struck Marcy and tumbled out of his mouth before he could stop it. He glanced back again while Sunny led them down a corner, leaving their last known location behind.

“He’s a werewolf,” Sibyl said first.

“He’s a—right, that,” Sunny said second, not breaking stride. “He can track us. It’ll give him something more to spend his energy on. Which is best for everyone in the long run.”

This time, it took them less than five minutes to get where they needed to go. Sunny walked with purpose and direction, like he knew exactly where he was going, until at long last, they found the doorway to Bounty’s, and the little kiosk of chocolates and magazines filled with mall deals. They thanked Sunny and bid him good day before attacking the aisles of the grocery store with vigor; they’d been here quite long enough, and Marcy got the idea that Sibyl was beginning to get just as anxious to head home as he’d been when they got here.

Thankfully, their list was short, and they had tasty cookies (probably Sam’s handiwork) to munch on. They gathered up the peppermints, chocolate chips, and gourmet coffee without trouble and, after a brief but harrowing hunt, managed to find the molasses. After making their purchase, they left satisfied with their job well done, and Marcy used the high to fuel a frantic flip through the mall flyer he’d snagged at the kiosk, looking for electronics and, very specifically, video games. He was hoping to spot a familiar and very tempting title among the listed sales.

On the way, one item caught his eye and he paused in the middle of the hallway, several paces outside Bounty’s. On the page was the very snowboards Sibyl had been ogling what felt like hours ago, discounted 40% off, priced at twenty-five zinnos. So he tucked one finger on that page and flipped on before Sibyl could notice.

Sure enough, he did find the rugged red and black cover for Outlaw’s Honor, listed on sale for twenty-nine zinnos right next to the entry for the G-Sphere M2.

He could only afford one of these.

So, after he made a quick call for a cab, when he spotted Sunny and Hye again outside the Chevonne’s on the way back to the mall exit, Marcy told Sibyl to wait by the Here Be Toyz for a second while he talked to them about “work stuff”. Thankfully, she didn’t ask or resist, and waited patiently. With her out of earshot, he could hand Sunny the ad and point out a particular red and black snowboard, and give Hye a handful of bills. If they purchased it for him, they could take it back to the shop and he could wrap it without Sibyl seeing—maybe even store it there until Christmas, just to be safe. 

Sharing a smile, Sunny and Hye agreed. Hye gave him another bag of cookies and told him to share it.

Maybe this snow day wasn’t so bad after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas, everyone! With this posted, I'll be taking a break for the holidays. :D Hope you guys enjoy the rest of the season, and we'll see you again in 2020!!


End file.
